Nursery rhymes to sing to your baby! Recommended songs enjoyable from 0 months

Close It, Open It

♪Close Them, Open Them

Musunde Hiraite, which also helps with a baby’s development, is a nursery rhyme loved across generations and is popular as a hand-play song.

While your baby is lying on their back, gently help them open and close their hands.

Movements like raising the hands up or spreading them to the sides become full-body exercise.

When the lyrics mention stars, airplanes, or frogs, parents can act them out to make it even more fun! Above all, it lets parents touch their baby with love, so it’s recommended for those who value close, affectionate interaction.

aye-aye

Baby Exercises with Mom ≪3≫ [Ai-Ai♪]: Loosen the shoulders, elbows, and wrists for a more mobile upper body

This is a children’s song about the aye-aye, which has big round eyes and a long tail and lives on a southern island.

With its bright, lively rhythm, it’s also great for baby exercises! If you sing while gently loosening your baby’s shoulders, elbows, and wrists, your baby will feel good and surely be in a great mood.

When you sing, try entertaining your baby by mimicking the aye-aye’s round eyes and long tail with gestures.

Both parents and babies can enjoy it, so please give it a try.

Panda, rabbit, koala

[Children's Song] Panda, Rabbit, Koala / Daisuke Yokoyama

The children’s song “Panda, Bunny, Koala,” featuring animals kids love, is also popular as a hand-play song where you sing while acting out each animal’s traits with gestures.

It’s fun because it starts at a slow tempo and gradually gets faster! For very young babies, parents can sing it to them and move their hands and feet, which will likely make them happy.

The choreography captures the characteristics of the panda, bunny, and koala well, so singing it with slightly exaggerated motions can take it up a notch.

Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star

Baby-mo April 2011 issue Hand-play song “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” [Shufunotomo Co., Ltd.]

Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star, which can also be used as a lullaby, is based on a popular French chanson.

It’s also often sung among children as a song for learning the alphabet.

It’s used as a hand-play song too, moving a lying baby’s arms and legs to the rhythm.

You can gently rock their body, press the soles of both feet together, or match the right palm with the left foot and vice versa—moving the baby’s body with simple, exercise-like motions.

When you move them in time with the music, babies enjoy it even more!

Seven-year-old child

Children’s song: Nanatsu no Ko (Seven-Year-Old)

Since the Taisho era, the children’s song “Nanatsu no Ko” has been passed down across generations.

It’s also known for the parody versions that became popular on comedy shows in the 1980s, so chances are everyone has heard it at least once.

The lyrics express a parent crow’s love for its chicks as it calls to them, thinking, “How cute, how cute.” I hope you’ll sing this classic, old-fashioned Japanese nursery rhyme to your little ones.

If you’re looking for lullabies to sing to a baby, be sure to check it out.